Could Octavia Butler's 'Parable of the Talents' draw a new audience as a graphic novel?

Influential writer Octavia Butler’s literate fable whitethorn dispersed to a caller benignant of fanbase with the instauration of a graphic caller adaptation of “Parable of the Talents,” primitively published arsenic a caller successful 1998 and victor of the 2000 Nebula Award for champion novel.

Unveiled past Friday nighttime astatine Octavia’s Bookshelf bookstore successful Pasadena, with illustrator John Jennings successful attendance for a Q&A, the adaptation volition beryllium released wide connected Tuesday by Abrams ComicsArts. Created by Eisner-award winners Damian Duffy and Jennings, alongside creator David Brame, “Talents” is simply a graphic caller follow-up to their Hugo Award-winning adaptation of Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” and continues coating a representation of a war-torn United States nether the power of a Christian fundamentalist fascist state. While “Sower” follows pb quality Lauren Olamina and her Earthseed religion successful a dystopian mentation of the world, “Talents” much intimately follows her girl Asha arsenic she comes to presumption with her mother’s legacy.

Butler’s “Parable” novels are hailed for their prescience — they are acceptable successful a aboriginal (our present) wherever the large governmental powerfulness runs nether the acquainted slogan “Make America Great Again” — and could scope a caller assemblage by continuing to people successful this increasing medium. Two Butler adaptations, “Sower” and “Kindred,” person already deed stands.

“I deliberation that it’s an important portion of our literate scenery and I emotion the normalization of graphic novels arsenic reading. But it’s an integrated propulsion to conscionable radical wherever they are and to recognize that antithetic forms of media helps america clasp information. We’re each different,” says Nikki High, proprietor of Octavia’s Bookshelf.

Influenced by everyone from Steve Ditko to Bill Sienkiewicz to Denys Cowan, and adjacent good artists and printmakers, Jennings is simply a prof of media and taste studies astatine UC Riverside. At the event, helium talked astir his process successful visually adapting the tome (“I’ll perceive to audiobooks of the caller portion drawing.”), conversing with his collaborators (“We’d beryllium figuring retired what’s the champion mode to get her imaginativeness to this peculiar medium.”) and what effect creating the adaptations had connected him (“It made maine a overmuch amended researcher.”)

“When you look astatine the 2 books, there’s a batch much achromatic abstraction successful the 2nd publication [“Talent”],” Jennings said. “It feels much similar a holographic projection. We’re dealing with the exertion of it a small spot more. I’m trying to propulsion that in. So fundamentally what we did is we took cues from our different collaborator — who was Octavia E. Butler. We’re conscionable trying to instrumentality cues from what she’s describing to really make the consciousness of the publication based disconnected of what we deliberation she would person possibly approved.”

Fans and critics surely approved. The graphic novels are “highly regarded” connected Amazon, and those who person work her enactment look to bask the aforesaid things successful the adapted graphic caller that drew them to Butler’s enactment successful the archetypal place.

“Her quality improvement and the antithetic themes successful her books sparked [my] interest. I loved ‘Kindred,’ and that was eye-opening for me,” said Jennifer Ayo, a graphic caller and Octavia Butler instrumentality who attended the Q&A session.

“For immoderate others, this could decidedly beryllium a gateway into the genre and her antithetic books.”

It whitethorn beryllium a daunting task adapting a beloved literate figure, but Jennings and Duffy person had a palmy tally truthful far.

“It’s been overwhelmingly positive. I’m definite that immoderate radical person issues, but the archetypal publication was fig 1 connected the New York Times bestsellers database and won the Bram Stoker Award and won the Eisner Award. The 2nd 1 won the Hugo Award. It seems that radical deliberation that we’re doing a beauteous decent job.”